


A Bartender Walks Out Of A Bar

by perniciousLizard



Series: Fired Up and Bone Weary [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Post-Pacifist Route, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 21:48:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5944264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perniciousLizard/pseuds/perniciousLizard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sans finds a picture of Grillby he can’t explain while looking through his album.  Trying to find an answer leads to unexpected consequences.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a sort-of-sequel to [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5760688), but can be read without reading the previous work. 
> 
> It was originally posted [here](http://it-refused.tumblr.com/post/137925240397/untitled-part-1-pairing-grillbysans).

“bro, i have to check on something in snowdin.  need anything while i’m at the house?”  Sans stood in the doorway to the kitchen.  Papyrus was concentrating on a pot of boiling water on the stove.

Sans hadn’t bothered to mention he was leaving last time he visited the underground and he had gotten a number of worried and angry text messages from Papyrus.  

“WHAT?  YOU DIDN’T GET EVERYTHING LAST TIME?”  Papyrus threw a box full of pasta into the boiling water and it splashed everywhere.  

“nah.”

“WELL, SIT DOWN!  I AM NOT LETTING YOU LEAVE ON AN EMPTY STOMACH, OR WITH SOMETHING FROM GRILLBY’S!  YOU SHOULDN’T TRAVEL SO FAR ON GREASE AND CONDIMENTS!”

“eh. it’s not that far.  i have a few shortcuts.”  

Papyrus grabbed a plate and shoved it into Sans’ hands.  "SIT!!!!!“

"dinner does sound good, though.  ok.  listen to this.  where did the spaghetti go to the dance?”

“SIT DOWN!”

“the meat ball.”  Sans chuckled.  

“…FINE. I WILL ACCEPT THAT ONE.”  

“you’re smiling.”

“SPAGHETTI YOUR BUTT ONTO THE COUCH AND WAIT FOR DINNER!”  

“oh my god.”  Sans was almost doubled over, laughing now, clutching the empty plate to his chest.  "good one.“  

"I KNOW!  NYEHEHEHEH!”  

Sans continued to pester Papyrus with puns until the noodles were done cooking, and then the two of them sat down to eat.  Papyrus’ cooking had improved to the point where his pasta was actually tolerable, and Sans was starting to develop a taste for it.  Sure, everything he ate for the next week was going to taste like garlic, but there were worse flavors out there.  

“YOU KNOW WHAT?  I’VE DECIDED!  I’M COMING WITH YOU!  I WANT TO SEE MY OLD BEDROOM AGAIN!”

“that’s all in the pasta, bro.  no reason to go back there.”

“A TRUELY GREAT SKELETON!  LIKE MYSELF!  BUILDS ON THE PAST TO MAKE A GREATER FUTURE!”

“wow. that’s such a cool thing to say.”  

“I KNOW!!!”  

Sans always had a tough time turning down his brother, so he already knew he was going to give in.  

Papyrus made his usual comment about the shortcut: “I HATE THAT YOU LEARNED HOW TO DO SOMETHING SO COOL, AND IT IS JUST SO THAT YOU CAN BE EXTRA LAZY!”

“but you agree that it’s cool.”

“OF COURSE!  YOU ARE, AFTER ALL, MY VERY COOL BROTHER.  WHO IS NOT AS COOL AS ME, THE GREAT PAPYRUS.  BUT BEING MY BROTHER MUST HAVE RUBBED OFF ON YOU, NYEHEHEH!”

“yeah.  thanks.”  He didn’t really need to grab Papyrus’ arm to take him along, but he did it anyway.  Papyrus was the best brother anyone could have asked for.  

They walked together out the front door and in a blink they were at the base of Mt. Ebott.  Sans could have taken a shortcut the entire way, or immediately taken the next one,  but he preferred to brace himself, take a little break, before he made himself go back under there.  

The break stretched longer than he intended--Papyrus had brought along a thermos of lemonade and they both sat down to drink it.  Papyrus was treating this like a road trip back to visit their family home.

Sans had gone back once, a few weeks after they reached the surface.  His original intention had been to mess around in the back room.  He hadn’t looked through the album since the world had been reset, and he needed to make himself look at those pictures and memorize them.  Instead, he had taken a nap and grabbed a few things they’d left behind.  

This time, he couldn’t avoid going in there.  He needed to add a picture to the album, just in case Frisk didn’t follow through on their promise.  He wasn’t entirely sure Frisk had complete control of it, anyway.  

The lemonade was interesting.  It was a joint effort between Undyne and Papyrus, and involved Undyne smashing the lemons with her fists until there was enough juice, then Papyrus emphatically stirring while she dumped sugar in.  The amount of sugar depended on how much Undyne had on hand, so sometimes the drink was incredibly sour, and sometimes it turned into a sugary lemon gel.

Sans drank it, regardless.  

Papyrus jumped to his feet and pulled Sans back up with him.  “I HOPE OUR HOUSE DIDN’T GET DIRTY SINCE WE’VE BEEN GONE!”

“let’s go see.”  He tipped back the last of his lemonade and by the time his cup was empty, they were in the living room of their old house.  

It had been over a year, and there was a stale smell and a layer of dust over everything.  Sans knew it was just standard dust, but it still made him uneasy.  

“OH!” Papyrus covered his mouth with his hands.  

Sans looked up at him, curious.  

“IT’S–THERE ARE SO MANY MEMORIES POURING THROUGH ME!  LOOK, SANS!  LOOK!  I USED TO WATCH SEXY ROBOT METTATON ON THIS COUCH!  I USED TO MAKE SPAGHETTI IN THAT KITCHEN!  I NEED TO FIX OUR SINK SO THAT IT IS THAT HIGH AGAIN!  LOOK!  YOUR SOCK–”  his expression darkened.  "…YOUR SOCK IS STILL RIGHT ON THE FLOOR WHERE YOU LEFT IT.“

"i should get to moving that,” Sans said.  He shoved his hands into his pockets and started walking to his bedroom.  

“PICK IT UP BEFORE YOU–AUGH!  NO!  I REFUSE TO START THIS AGAIN RIGHT NOW!”  

“yeah you shouldn’t _knit_ -pick.” He unlocked the door to his bedroom.  "you should be _stocking_ up on anything you wanted to bring back.  i’ll be an hour.“  He stepped into his room, closed and locked the door behind him, and when he turned around again he was in his back room.

The glowing light in his eyesockets was drawn to the broken machine on one side of the room, but he tore them away and went over to where he kept all his papers and the album.  

It was hard not to get stuck here, flipping through the pictures, committing them to memory.  He tried to hurry, reminding himself that Papyrus was alone in the house, and he’d come looking if Sans took too long.  

He got to the end, where he was planning on slipping the new photo, and stopped short.  He didn’t always remember all the pictures in his album, but he had a pretty good idea what they would be.  

He pulled a photograph out of its plastic sleeve that he didn’t recognize at all.  There was nothing that noteworthy about it, other than that he had decided it was important enough to stick in the album.

He was sitting with Grillby at a table in the restaurant at the MTT Resort.  He did shows there, sometimes, and Grillby had relatives in Hotland, so it wasn’t weird that they’d run into each other.  They both had unwrapped glam burgs from the fast food place in the lobby. Not like Sans would have made a reservation.  The two of them didn’t even have plates.  He was guessing Grillby was dissatisfied with the glamburger, but that was just a guess from knowing the guy.  He was hard to read in a photo.  

Why had he decided he needed to remember this?  

He flipped the picture over, thinking he might have left a note for himself like he had on the back of some of the other pictures, but, nope.  Maybe he was messing with himself.  Pranking himself across space and time.  He shook his head and laughed.  He really wasn’t taking anything seriously anymore, was he?  

He put the picture of himself and Grillby back, and then got out the new photo he’d brought with him and found a place for it.  There.  His work was done.  

Time for a break.  


	2. Chapter 2

All night, Grillby tried to shake the uneasy feeling that he was being watched.  He glanced at the humans who were brave enough to stop in the new monster bar and grill, but they were hunched together in their booth, keeping to themselves.  

He looked around at the regulars who had stayed close enough to continue their regular visits.  He used to catch the rabbit woman watching him, sometimes, but he had not seen her in months.  

"what’s up?" Sans asked, catching Grillby examining the crowd.  The most regular of the regulars sat at his usual barstool, a half-empty ketchup bottle by his hand. 

"…" It could just be his imagination.  He shook his head.

Sans shrugged and squirted some more ketchup into his mouth.  "got any mustard?"

Grillby walked off to grab an unopened yellow bottle from the kitchen.  He expected Sans to finish off his mustard and head back to say goodnight to his brother, but Sans stayed in his seat slowly working through condiments as the place cleared out.  

"you stay open later than you used to."

Grillby nodded.  Different town, different culture.  There were a couple other people left and he planned on tossing them out, soon.  He didn’t mind if Sans stayed past closing.  Some of his naps used to last until Papyrus showed up to drag him home, but he wasn’t nodding off like he used to.  

"it was a lot of work getting started up again.  i get tired just thinking about it."

"………..I don’t mind."

"better you than me.  guess some people need to keep a lot of _irons_ in the _fire_."

“…” Grillby left to take the garbage out.  When he came back, he was surprised to see Sans was still there.  "…?"

"you take any time off lately, grillbz?" 

He shook his head and started wiping down the counters.  He had a little more time, now that he had hired on some extra help, but running a business was still not something that left him with a lot of free time.  He opened up at 11:30 and closed at midnight every day except for Friday and Saturday, when he closed at 2.  The time he had away from work he spent doing the normal things a monster had to do to maintain a life, like cleaning his apartment over the bar and keeping up with his relatives.  

"eh." Sans hopped down from his bar stool.  "c'mon.  let’s get out of here."  

"………………why?" He set down his rag for a minute.  He considered Sans a friend, but not the kind he saw outside work.  

"i wanna ask you something, and it’s not working here.  maybe cause  _you_ are.  i don’t know."  He snickered.  

“…how long?”  

“maybe an hour.”

He could not say that Sans would never make him leave work if it wasn’t important.  Grillby was positive that if Sans thought it would be funny, he would pull him out of the building in the middle of a rush.

Well, Grillby  wasn’t in that much of a hurry.  The other remaining customers had left, and he could just come in a little early tomorrow if Sans dragged the conversation/prank out.  

Sans was staring at him, unblinking.  

Grillby shrugged and walked around the counter.  

Sans’ grin drew a little wider and he slapped Grillby on the back of his vest.  It made a small burst of flame pop out the top of his collar.

“…”

“what’s with that sternum look?”  Sans’ shoulders shook with silent laughter.  

“…let me lock up.”  

“i’m not in a hurry,” Sans said, shrugging.  

Grillby took his time making sure everything was off and closed up.  Sans waited for him, fussing on his cell phone.  Most likely he was sending a text message to his brother.  Papyrus lived and worked too far away to just show up and drag Sans back home, anymore.  

They both walked outside and Grillby locked the door behind them.  It was a quiet night.  Grillby’s ambient glow and the light from the other nearby businesses made it difficult to see all but a few stars, but the sky was clear and the air was dry and cool.  It wasn’t a bad night for a fire elemental to go for a walk.  

Sans shoved his hands deep in his pockets and started shuffling along, down the road.  Grillby had no idea where they were going, but it felt like too much work to get the words out and ask.

They walked around a corner and approached a dark, empty park Grillby didn’t recognize.  The area had changed abruptly as they turned the corner, and the air sparked with magic.  Sans had taken him on one of his shortcuts, and now Grillby had no idea where they were.  He wasn’t sure it was even the same town.  

“yeah, this is better,” Sans said, mostly to himself.  

A strong wind shot through the park, rattling the leaves on the trees. Grillby crackled and the exposed parts of his body moved along with the breeze.  Sans didn’t seem to notice.  He took them over to a bench by the swing sets.  Grillby wondered if this was near where Sans lived, and if he took the human child here to play. 

“…better for what?”  Grillby finally asked, sitting down next to Sans.  

Sans was short enough that his feet didn’t quite reach the ground, so he swung his legs and leaned back, looking up.  "well.“  He patted his pockets and pulled out a pack of gum.  "want some?"

Grillby considered, as his flames licked in whatever direction the wind decided.  He held out his hand.  

“okay.” Sans handed over a piece and then put the pack back in his pocket without taking one for himself.  

_It’s some kind of prank._ Grillby opened up his mouth, a gaping maw of fire, and made full eye contact with Sans while he slowly chewed the piece of gum.  It seemed completely normal–he had been expecting a strange flavor, at least–but whatever trick there was to it was ruined when it incinerated inside his mouth.  

Sans shrugged.  "ok.  this is kind of out of nowhere.  most of your relatives lived in hotland, right?"  

Grillby flickered uneasily.  "……"  He tried to think why Sans would be bringing up his family.  "………are they all right?" He didn’t keep in touch with every one of his relatives.

"oh. yeah.  sorry.  no, it’s not bad news or anything."  He swung his legs.  "you know.  never mind.  changing it up didn’t help."

"…"   

"eh. you’re supposed to chew gum for longer than a minute, you know, grillbz."

Now they were changing the subject, apparently.  "What was it supposed to do?"

"it was just normal gum."  

Grillby waited.

“as far as you’ll know.”  Sans stood up and put his bony hand on Grillby’s shoulder.  "nah, i give up.  let’s go back.  it wasn’t a big deal." 

There wasn’t much point trying to get something out of Sans when he had decided not to talk about it.  Grillby stood up with him.  "…do you take Frisk here?"

"oh, yeah, me and the kiddo come here all the time."  They walked out of park and, in a second, were in the alley behind Grillby’s restaurant.  "guess I kinda wasted your time.  i was being a _bonehead._ "

Grillby shook his head, partially at the awful joke, and partially at the idea he was inconvenienced.  "…I don’t mind.  It has been too long since I did something that had nothing to do with work," he admitted.  

"yeah.  that doesn't sound healthy.  you could… _burn yourself out_."

Grillby hissed a little, laughing.  "…speaking from experience?"

Sans laughed.  "you should take off sometime.  buy me a movie ticket."

Grillby found himself considering it.  The stress of starting a new business in an almost completely alien environment was wearing him down.  He had barely seen any of this world, unless it was related to his restaurant.  He shrugged.  

“well, either way.”  Sans paused, and Grillby braced himself for the pun.  "i’m bone-tired.  seeya later, grillbz."

"…good night, Sans."

He waited for Sans to walk out of sight before he went back inside.  He found himself missing the cool, dry air, as well as the company.  As he climbed the stairs up to his apartment, he wondered what Sans had actually wanted to ask him.  Knowing Sans, it was likely he would never find out.


	3. Chapter 3

Sans climbed the stairs up to Grillby’s apartment.  The walls were dark and his hand bones stuck to the railing, just a bit.  A heavy smoke scent permeated everything.   _Where there's smoke there's fire._  It wasn’t dirty like Sans’ bedroom was dirty–it was “there’s only so much you can do, living over a grill” dirty.  Sans liked it.  

He didn’t have to wait long after a few lazy knocks on the door before Grillby opened it.  Sans got a glimpse of a bright, organized space behind him before Grillby stepped out and closed the door.

Grillby had on a white button down and black jeans–shedding the tie made him look casual.

“lookin’ kinda hot,” Sans said, snickering.  

Grillby knocked him on the back of the head.  

“no one there’s gonna hold a candle to you.”  That got his hood pulled up over his head.  

Usually Grillby just put up with San’s jokes or ignored them like they hadn’t happened, but he seemed to be in a good mood.  

Sans wished he’d tried to shake Grillby’s hand when he said hello.  Maybe he wouldn’t just melt the whoopie cushion shut so it was a useless inflated rubber sack like he had the last three times Sans had tried that gag on him.  

Outside, the sun was shining and there were humans hurrying down the sidewalk, going about their important human business.  Watching them rush along made Sans tired, but it was nice to see these particular humans were used to monsters and just breezed past them, barely noticing they were there. 

Grillby looked him over.  "…you look….the same.“  He paused, and Sans waited in anticipation.  ”…tibia honest.“  

"yeah, sans-sational, right?  why mess with a classic look."  He whacked Grillby on the arm.  He hoped Grillby appreciated how early he’d had to get up for this.

“…for the sake of…good taste.”  

Was that a food joke?  Sans hoped so.  "i got here a little late, but i know a shortcut so we should make it.“  

Grillby nodded.  

"this way."

When they turned the corner they were directly inside the front door of the theater.  Grillby’s flames stuttered oddly, and he shook his head.

“all right?”

“….that….itched.  ….this time.”  

“huh. didn’t do that before, did it?”  

He shook his head, again.  "The air’s different, indoors,“ he said, to himself.  

"huh."

It was early enough in the day that most of the people in the lobby were retirees.  Humans.  They were all looking at Sans and Grillby, and when Sans looked at his friend he saw that he had drawn himself tightly to himself, keeping himself careful and contained.  Grillby was nervous.  

Then, a rabbit family left one of the bathrooms–there had to be six little rabbit children following their parents–and the human attention turned to them.  One of the old women clasped her hands over her heart and cooed about how cute the youngest rabbit child was. Grillby relaxed.

“yeah i take the kid here all the time.”  

The line to buy tickets was completely empty.  Sans did the talking, and Grillby took out his wallet and paid the nervous looking employee.  

Everyone was still looking at Grillby when Grillby wasn’t looking in their direction.  It was going to get on Sans’ nerves (if he had them, ha) pretty fast, even if they were just worried about the whole place going down in flames.  

Grillby took the tickets, gave Sans his, and stuck the other one in his pocket.  Sans had never met a monster with better control of their fire magic.  

“…you spend a lot of time with Frisk.”  

“walk ‘em to school, most days.”  

Grillby bought himself popcorn.  When he offered to buy something for Sans, he responded to Sans stating that he was “fine” with a reasonable amount of suspicion.  Once they were in the theater, in their seats, Sans pulled a bag of chips and a two liter bottle of soda out of his coat.  

“you didn’t see anything,” Sans said, as he loudly opened the chip bag.  He set the bottle of soda in the empty seat next to him, away from Grillby.  

Grillby covered where his mouth would be, if it was visible, trying not to laugh.  

“thanks for _chipping in_ and paying for the tickets,” Sans said.  "by the way.“  

"I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t made the suggestion,” Grillby said.  Trying to pick out the words was like trying to find a pattern in television static.  "…it’s fine.“  

The lights dimmed and Sans watched the trailers, for a minute.  "you ever need to buy someone a ticket to get out of the house again, i’m here for you.”  

“I’ll keep that in mind.”  

They were sitting near the back, where the light Grillby gave off wouldn’t bother the two other people in the theater.  

Sans finished his chips by the end of the trailers while Grillby picked through his popcorn.  The soda was gone by the time Sans got bored of the movie twenty minutes in.  There were zero bad jokes, everyone took themselves seriously, and the acting wasn’t even terrible enough to make fun of.  He nodded off, skull lolling back.

He jerked awake when one of the boring human characters onscreen suddenly shouted.  He had slid sideways during his nap.  His new pillow was very warm and smelled like burnt popcorn.  

“grillbz have they done anything yet?” Sans mumbled.  "should i just go back to sleep?“

He got fire elemental elbow in his side, so he sat up and stretched. Maybe he’d go online and write a movie review later– _4 stars, best nap I’ve had in months._

He rubbed his eye sockets and tried to pay attention for two minutes.  He started to say something, but noticed Grillby’s glasses were pointed directly at the screen, so he snapped his teeth shut and shook his head, amused.  He needed to show Grillby what a good movie was really like, if he was enjoying this.  

As he watched, Grillby pulled an unpopped kernel out of his nearly empty bag, held it until it popped, and ate it.  Sans watched this instead of the movie.  

–

Grillby had ignored that Sans fell asleep two seconds into the movie until he felt the skeleton’s head knock into his arm.  He had nudged him, at the time, but Sans hadn’t budged.  

Eventually, his attention had been drawn back to the screen and he decided it didn’t bother him.  Sans drooled soda on his shirt, and it evaporated.  

The credits rolled and Grillby crumpled up the paper popcorn bag and looked at Sans.  

"hey.”

“…good nap?”  

“it’s hard to say.  i slept through it.”  

Grillby stood up and Sans followed him out of the theater, chuckling to himself.

“what?  i was just bone-tired.  i know you liked it, but the only moving that movie made me do was into a horizontal position.”  

“…it was interesting.”  It had been entirely human actors and human drama.  The explosions that casually littered the story had made him a little nostalgic.

“you seemed pretty fired up about it.”  

“You slept through the best part.”  The hairiest human had blown up a huge metal container of flammable liquid.  

Sans paused, parsing what Grillby had just said.  Either Grillby took his time with speaking, or the person he spoke to had to try and figure out what he’d said.  "i slept through 90% of it so the odds were good i was gonna.  any bad jokes i missed?“  Sans usually could figure it out.

Grillby nodded.

Sans slapped himself on the leg bone.  "i can’t believe i didn’t wake up for those.”  

It was a quick shortcut back to the bar.  They climbed up to Grillby’s door, and when he turned to say goodbye and Sans shifted awkwardly, he wondered if this was what a date with Sans would be like.  

_Wait._

_Was this…_

Sans scratched the back of his skull.  "later, grillbz"

Grillby went back into his apartment.   _False alarm._


	4. Chapter 4

“night, kiddo.”  

Frisk gestured for Sans to come inside and he was tempted.  Toriel was a great cook, if you had a taste for snails and butterscotch, and it’s not like he hated their company.  

“eh, another time.  paps already has the water boiling by now.”  How was he so lucky, that there were so many people willing to feed him?

Frisk waved goodbye and Sans finally got to go home.  He had let himself get too busy, and he was probably going to pay for it.  Welp, he should enjoy this timeline as much as he could before the reset.  

With that cheery thought spurring him on, he got home before Papyrus finished cooking.  Pots banged together loudly in the kitchen and Papyrus was verbally encouraging the sauce.  Man, that sauce was going to have such high self-esteem, Sans would feel bad eating it.  

Papyrus left the kitchen carrying an enormous pot of spaghetti, too much for two skeletons.  His chef’s cap said “#1 Coolest Chef” with the “coolest” written in pink permanent marker.  

“I HAVEN’T SEEN MY COOL HUMAN FRIEND FRISK IN SO LONG!  BECAUSE WE ARE BOTH SO BUSY.  DOING IMPORTANT WORK.  SINCE YOU ARE SUCH A LAZYBONES AND GET TO VISIT, YOU SHOULD AT LEAST KEEP ME UPDATED ON HOW THEY ARE DOING.”  

“they’re great.  they told me a joke yesterday.  listen to this: why is the library the tallest building?”

“BECAUSE IT IS AN IMPORTANT BUILDING THAT HAS TO HOLD A LARGE NUMBER OF BOOKS ON DIFFERENT TOPICS.”  

“close. because it has so many stories.”  He snorted.  "what a great kid.“

"NO!!!! YOU ARE RUINING THEM WHILE I AM TOO BUSY TO SEE THEM!”  

Sans slopped some pasta onto his plate.  It was barely an ordeal, anymore. A few more years of practice, and he would even call it good.  He kept Papyrus updated on what Frisk had done in the last week.

Then, he looked up, and Papyrus was already looking at him.   _Slyly._ Sans swallowed his mouthful of food too soon and almost choked on it.  

“SO.  SANS.  HOW WAS THE MOVIE?  YOU CAN’T GET OUT OF ANSWERING BY PRETENDING TO COUGH!”

He eventually was able to speak again.  "you really going to grill me on this, bro?“

"YOU HAVE NEVER HAD A ‘HANG OUT’ WITH HIM BEFORE!  THIS IS IMPORTANT.”

“i hang out with the grillster all the time.”

“YOU EAT GREASY FOOD AT HIS RESTAURANT!  THAT IS NOT THE SAME THING AT ALL.”

“ok.”

“IT ISN’T!  IT’S LIKE YOUR FRIENDSHIP IS BLOSSOMING AND REACHING A WHOLE NEW LEVEL!”

“ok.”

“SO!  TELL ME ABOUT THE MOVIE!”

“i slept through most of it.”  

“SANS!”

“i can’t believe you didn’t notice the grill joke i made earlier.  that was a really good one.”  Sans was still laughing about it.  

“SANS!!!!”

Sans decided to throw his brother a bone.  "grillby liked it okay.  i think he just needs to get out more.”  

“MAYBE YOU SHOULD INVITE HIM OVER HERE, AND I WILL COOK SO YOU CAN LEVEL UP YOUR FRIENDSHIP.  WITH THE HELP OF A GREAT MEAL BY UP AND COMING MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS!”  Papyrus served himself another helping of pasta.  "AND MAYBE THEN YOU WILL BECOME…BEST FRIENDS??“

Sans hoped that spot would always be held by Papyrus, but maybe brothers didn’t count in whatever mental friendship calculation Paps was doing.  "eh.  that’s not really him getting _out_.” He thought it would be sort of funny to introduce Grillby to Papyrus’ cooking, but maybe in a _cruel_ prank way.  

“THEN WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NEXT?”

“uh. didn’t have any plans, bro.”

Papyrus leaned across the table, narrowing his eyes.  "BUT YOU SAID HE NEEDED TO 'get out more.'  HOW DO YOU KNOW HE WILL, IF YOU DON’T INVITE HIM ANYWHERE?  YOU CAN’T LEARN A NEW HABIT BY DOING SOMETHING ONCE!"

"uh, since when do you care that much about grillbz, bro?”  He was pretty sure they mainly interacted when Grillby called Papyrus because Sans had fallen asleep at the bar.  

“I ALWAYS CARE ABOUT YOUR FRIENDS!  AND THIS ONE DOESN’T ENCOURAGE YOU TO MAKE MORE AWFUL JOKES.”  Papyrus frowned.  "HE JUST ENCOURAGES YOUR TERRIBLE EATING HABITS.“

"that’s great."  Sans was getting a little suspicious of Papyrus’ motives, here.  "he’s kind of a _rare_ guy.  i don’t need a _medium_ to tell me that.  but it’s great that you care about his _well_ -being. maybe you two should _meat_ and–"

"SANS!”  Papyrus grabbed his dirty dishes and fled into the kitchen.  

“–and _ketchup_ on old times,” Sans finished.  Whatever this was actually about, he figured chasing Papyrus into the kitchen had put an end to it.  

“I AM COMPLETELY ENRAGED!”  Papyrus yelled, from the kitchen.  "I AM DONE WITH YOU!“  Dishes banged against each other.  " _WELL DONE_ WITH YOU!”  

“nice.”

"NYEH HEH HEH!”  

Sans left the rest of the food and the dishes on the table and went to sit on the couch and flip through channels.  He should probably help Papyrus out with 'em, but, _eh_.

He woke up in the middle of the night, a blanket draped over him and printed out movie listings taped to the side of his skull.  Papyrus had circled one movie in particular with so much red ink, Sans could barely make out the title.  He’d written “SEE SOMETHING YOU WILL ACTUALLY LIKE!” and there were arrows pointing to that movie and a couple others.  They looked like comedies.

Sans snorted.  "paps, c'mon."  Somehow, this hangout thing had become a part of Papyrus’ never-ending Sans Improvement Project.  This had nothing to do with Grillby – he could be hanging out with the Snowdrake who used to perform at the MTT Resort and Papyrus would be acting exactly the same.  

A couple weeks ago, Toriel had tried out making apple pie and Sans had complimented it within hearing range of Papyrus.  The next day there had been apples in a bowl in the living room.  He had no idea what he was supposed to do to make his brother stop worrying about him.

He yawned, stretched, and decided to at least sleep for the rest of the night in his bed.  He left the piece of paper taped to his skull until the morning, when Papyrus yanked it off and read his note out loud to him.  

 

–-

 

"hey. grillbz."

Grillby nodded.  

Sans gave his order, and when Grillby came back he said, “let’s see something else tomorrow.  you up for it?”  

Grillby stood very still, his flames buffeting back and forth as people moved around the bar.  He finally nodded.  

“cool.” Sans dumped an entire bottle of ketchup on his fries and dug in.  

 

–-

 

The third time they went to see a movie, Sans stayed awake for most of it.  The jokes were terrible, and Grillby could see him absorbing the worst ones like a sponge.  

The employees were used to him, which made the experience less uncomfortable.  As they left, the human behind the ticket counter was trying to convince a small pile of spiders that they would have to each buy a ticket, even though they could all fit in a single chair.  The worker was sweating, and looking around for their manager.  

“hey. let’s sit a sec.”  There were a few couches in the lobby, and Sans seemed drawn to the ugliest one.  Grillby sat next to him, very careful with something so clearly flammable.  

“those spiders are going to get themselves in on one ticket,” Sans said, quiet.  "just watch 'em.“  

"…the human......it fell into the trap."

"feel kinda sorry for 'em.”

There was a small table by the couch.  Sans put his feet on it.  

"…don’t go to sleep here.”  

 Sans yawned.  "you gotta get back, right?“  

"…" Of course he did.  

Sans was looking up at him, blinking slowly, tired and comfortable. "yeah.  better get going, then."  He didn’t move right away.  

The spiders were carrying their ticket over to an alarmed looking human woman.  She tore it, her hands shaking, and handed the stub back.  The spiders chattered cheerfully among themselves.  

There were more of the elderly humans, that day.  They seemed to be there mostly in pairs, but there was also a small group.  Grillby recognized a woman from one of the pairs - the one who had been delighted by a monster child the first time he had seen a movie at this theater.  

"oof, all right.  i need a hand up, pal.  help me out," Sans said.

Grillby knew the second he touched Sans’ hand that he had fallen for the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick, again.  He pulled Sans to his feet, anyway. 

This felt like a date.  Grillby found himself staring at the top of Sans’ skull, uneasy.  This didn’t feel like a date he had ever been on before, but like what a date would be like if you were going on one with Sans.  

He hadn’t even sealed the whoopee cushion like he _always_ did when Sans played that trick on him.  Did he want this to be a date?  

"…"

"uh, you all right there, grillby?"

"…………………"

"ok."

"………let’s go."  There was no way to ask the question that he wanted to ask. 

"sure."  Sans gave him a strange look and whacked him affectionately on the arm.  

Grillby kept himself very tightly contained for the walk back to his bar.  If Sans noticed, he didn’t say a word.  

 

–-

 

Frisk had to meet with some humans as part of their work as an ambassador, so Sans got the see a new part of the surface and a whole new group of humans.  No one ever asked him to go along, but he was always there.  Toriel ignored whatever excuse he made and thanked him for watching out for her kid.  

She seemed to think that he was still acting on that promise he’d made to her.  Maybe that was part of it.

So for three days his schedule was completely disrupted, but he got to try out new food and hear new jokes, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.  

He was still worn out the first time he was back in Grillby’s after the trip.  He fell asleep in his regular seat and before he knew it, Grillby was wiping down the counter around his skull and it was just the two of them.  He checked the clock and it was half an hour past when Grillby closed up.  

Grillby noticed he was awake and motioned for him to move his head so he could finish wiping the counter.  

Sans leaned back and stretched.  "seeing you when i first wake up always _brightens_ my day."  Well, night.  

Grillby sighed, and the room warmed up, just a touch.  

"i can tell you liked that one.  your eyes just _lit up_."  He chuckled and pulled out his cell phone.  Six messages from Papyrus, three of them asking where he was, and the rest telling him to wake up and nap in a bed if he had to sleep.  He typed “ok” and sent it, so his bro wouldn’t worry, and shoved the phone back into his pocket.  "oh, hey, grillbz, any free time tomorrow?"

"…"  Grillby’s expression was completely unreadable.  Sans assumed he was going over his schedule and waited it out.  When Grillby finally responded, slowly shaking his head, Sans didn’t think anything about it.

"ok.  some other time.  maybe we can see one with a lot of explosions, like the first one.  we’ll _have a blast_.”  He headed out towards the door.  

“……good night, Sans,” Grillby said, and Sans realized those were the only words he’d heard out of Grillby the whole day.  

“night, pal.”  

He asked again a few days later, and Grillby turned him down again.  He stopped asking.  


	5. Chapter 5

Grillby hadn’t seen Dogaressa or Dogamy since they had their pup, so when Dogaressa walked through the door he got out from behind the counter and went to greet her.  She seemed down, but gratefully accepted a few head pats.  Grillby was always very careful.  

"saw those pics you posted.  that pup’s getting huge."  Sans was at his usual spot, eating his dinner.  "kept saying to paps, i should _collar_ and find out how she’s doing."  

Dogaressa’s ears drooped, and she whined.  Grillby had no idea what was wrong – out of all the dogs, she was the one who most liked Sans’ puns – so he helped her over to a chair and went to get her a drink and something to eat.  

Sans was sitting across from her when he left the kitchen.  "yeah. that’s tough luck."

“(They won’t be back until tomorrow!)”  She gratefully took her drink from Grillby and sniffled into her plate.  "(I just looked around the kitchen, and I couldn’t even pour myself kibble.)"

Grillby couldn’t hang around and chat at such a busy time of the day, but he picked up parts of their conversation and started to understand what happened.  Dogaressa, Dogamy, and their pup had been planning a short trip, but she had gotten sick right before they left.  Dogamy wanted to call the whole thing off, but their puppy was so excited about the trip, she told them to go ahead without her.  Now she wasn’t sick and her family was still away.

She cheered up, though, as she caught up with Sans and the other regulars who still came by.  The last year had been a busy one for her and her husband, and as she sniffed around the restaurant she acted like she was remembering that a world existed outside her small family.  

She was still there when Sans left, when the bar cleared out and Grillby had some time to sit with her.  

"(I missed this place!)" she told him.  "(It still smells like home.  I wish we weren’t so dog-tired all the time, so we could visit.)"

"…we’ve missed you, too," Grillby said.  He had.  He didn’t spend much time online, so he hadn’t even realized she was posting pictures of the puppy there.  He told her what he knew about the rest of the regulars who didn’t come by anymore – the ones who lived too far, or were too busy in their new lives.  She wagged her tail, hearing about her old friends.  

She returned the favor: he hadn’t heard from Greater Dog in a long time, but she kept in touch with all the old guard and told him stories about Greater Dog’s mission to get pet by every human they ran across.  

"(Sans looks happy)," she said.  "(I don’t think I even knew he was sad!  But he seems happier now.)"

Grillby nodded.  He’d noticed, too.  

"(Maybe that’s true for everybody!  We don’t have to be buried like a forgotten toy anymore.)"

"……he’s almost been active." 

"(Wow!)"  She loudly yipped, laughing.  

"………..he took me out.  To a movie."

"(Well, good!  You smell tired)," she said.  

He had been hearing that a lot, lately.  "….i’m fine."

"(Not as tired as me, though!  Puppies are hard work!)"  It was an ungraceful subject change, but not unexpected.  She had already brought the conversation back to her puppy multiple times before.  

This time she took out some pictures and spread them out on the table so Grillby could admire them.  Before she left, she gave him one of her, Dogamy, and the puppy.  He tacked it up in the kitchen where he would be sure to see it regularly.  

Dogaressa’s non-reaction to him going out with Sans confirmed that it really wasn’t notable.  Anything strange about it was happening entirely on Grillby’s end.  That made it worse.  

Sans had not acted like he noticed Grillby was avoiding him.  He hadn’t asked about going out again, though.  

How could he have known his friend for so many years, and still have no idea what was going on in his skull?  

 

–-

 

There had been far too many humans in the restaurant all day, and Grillby found every one of them tiresome.  There were humans he liked, but as the monsters were demystified, he was having to serve people who showed up out of curiosity, left a poor tip, and spent their entire stay blatantly staring at his regular clientele. 

He kept reminding himself that he had considered reopening his restaurant in one of the settlements that had popped up immediately after everyone started coming to the surface, but had decided to build it around humans on purpose.  

Still, he was genuinely considering closing early when the door opened and Sans shuffled in.  He approached the counter, hands shoved deep into his pockets.  The shadows on his face made him look tired.

"…long day?"  Grillby said, unconsciously adjusting his tie.  Sans stayed this late, sometimes, but he didn’t usually show up right before the bar closed.  

"yeah, it’s been something else," Sans said.  "you’re closing up?  just get me a burg, to go."

Grillby shook his head.  "…sit down."

"don’t know how long i can stay awake, anyway."

Grillby shook his head, again, and walked around the counter.  He pushed Sans gently towards his chair.

Sans laughed, “all right, fine, you win, grillbz.”  He hopped up onto his stool and watched Grillby go over to the last small group of human customers.  Grillby stood near them, conspicuously cleaning tables, until they suddenly noticed how close it was to closing and left.  

Grillby locked the door behind them.  He turned back to Sans, and found him with his head on the counter, watching Grillby sideways.  

Grillby pulled his apron off and tossed it on the counter.  

“long day?” Sans echoed.  

Grillby gestured for Sans to stand up.  His friend seemed unwilling to move, at least not without an explanation.  "…i haven’t eaten, either.  Come upstairs with me.  I’ll make enough for you."

Sans looked surprised, but he followed Grillby up to his apartment.  

Grillby unlocked the door and Sans followed him in, looking around, curious. He seemed to have woken up a little.  "nice place."  

"…"  Grillby nodded.  He gestured to a chair at the kitchen table and got out the chicken he had left defrosting in the fridge that morning.  

Sans continued to do what he was told, resting his head on the table.  The lights in his eyes seemed a little dim.  "you know, i must’ve been wrong.  i thought you were mad."  He yawned.  "giving me the _cold shoulder_."

Grillby went still.  "…"  

"tried to figure it out, but – ” he shrugged.  

Grillby wanted to say, “you could have asked,” but he probably would have burned himself on his own hypocrisy.  "…i wasn’t angry," he said, finally getting some words out.  

"oh."

“………….sorry.”

“what? you were busy.  or whatever.  no big.”  

Grillby turned around and sat down in the chair across from Sans.  He leaned forward.  "…no.  I was being _rude_.  I didn’t…“  He reached halfway across the table and clenched his fist.  "I’m sorry.  It was me.  Entirely."  

Sans looked down at Grillby’s hand, and then up at his face.  The light in his eyesockets was brighter.  He was confused.  "…no big, grillby." 

It _was,_ but again, just for Grillby.  He nodded.  He tried to think of something else to say, some explanation for why he had been so "cold," but gave up.  He went back to cooking.  That was easy for him, at least.  

"so, uh, bad day?  never seen you sweat out a customer before."

"…barely customers....more like spectators."  

"oof, yeah, that sounds like a pain to deal with."

“It’s fine.”

“opened a bar, not a circus,” Sans pointed out.  

Grillby poured him a drink and sat down with him, giving the food a minute to settle before he served it.  "…there are worse ways....that they could see us."  

"it’s not at the top of the worst ways, sure, but still."  He shrugged.  

"You didn’t have a good day, either."

Sans sipped his drink before answering.  "nah.  it was fine.  not like your fine, but actually.  just long." 

"…why?"

"oh, just watching the kiddo.  ran some errands, i guess, too.  you know what paps would say – i gotta do more so i don’t wear out so easy."

Grillby got up and set a plate out for each of them.  

"thanks."

Before he sat down, Grillby tugged his bowtie loose and pulled it off entirely.  He didn’t generally wear it around the apartment.  

"woah.  dinner _and_ a show."

It took a few seconds for what Sans said to actually sink in, and Grillby could feel himself blushing, his face turning bright blue. “.........what?”  

Sans was staring at him, surprised by Grillby’s over-reaction.  "uh. kidding."

Grillby looked down at his plate and started to eat.  He was just going to move on from that little moment.  

"guess you’re so _hot_ it turned me into a complete _bonehead_ there for a sec."  

Grillby had to stop and cover his face.  He had heard uncountable jokes like this from Sans since he had met him, but the timing was  _awful_. “...sans.”  

"i’d better cease-fire before you throw me out," Sans said.  

“…you are always… _something_ ,” Grillby said.  

“yeah, you know you love me,” Sans said, snickering.  

“Eat your food.  And be quiet.”  

“stuff my face so i have to shut up, huh?  can’t say it isn’t effective.”

“…make no bones about it,” Grillby said, deadpan.  

Sans was sipping his drink and almost spit it out.  He forced himself to swallow, and then said, easy, “love you too, grillbz.”  

Grillby picked at his dinner, lost in thought.  

Sans didn’t mind a quiet audience, and now that he was sure Grillby wasn’t genuinely angry with him, he took the chance to dust off some finely-aged chicken jokes.  To complement the meal, like a well-paired wine.  

Grillby watched Sans nod off at the table, right before a punchline.  He had started out tired, and the drink couldn’t have helped.  Grillby got up and quietly cleared off the table.  

Sans’ head jerked and he said, "–she wasn’t a spring chicken."  He blinked up at Grillby.  "oh.  hey."  His smile was a little sheepish.  

Grillby thought he liked the way Sans looked at his table.  


	6. Chapter 6

He didn’t ask Grillby out again, and Grillby didn’t invite him up for dinner again, but things seemed to settle into a comfortable normal, over the next few days.  Grillby wasn’t avoiding him.  

Grillby’s was his home away from home.  Well, that was Tori’s place, actually.  His home away from his home away from home.  It cheered Sans up that the problem had been resolved without him even finding out what it was.  He hadn’t had to lift a finger-bone.  

Of course, that meant whatever went wrong could happen again, but then he just started to over-think it and got tired.  It was better now; the end.  

He took out his phone and flipped through to the picture of him and Grillby – he’d saved himself a copy so he could look it over without taking it out of his work room.  He was starting to genuinely believe he had been pranking himself across space and time.  He didn’t normally do that to himself, but he wouldn’t say he had _never_ done that.  

He put the phone away and looked up and saw Grillby watching him, waiting for Sans to make his order.  

“the usual, grillbz,” he said.  

 

–-

 

Every night, Grillby considered asking Sans up to his apartment to have dinner with him again, and decided against it.  He was starting to feel himself withdrawing.

He was a fire monster who lived surrounded by flammable people.  One moment where he wasn’t careful could have disastrous consequences, and if he wasn’t sure he could control himself, he would not be able to run his restaurant.  

Monsters were made of magic, and their magic was controlled by their will and emotions.  Of course he could not stop _feeling_ things, but it was essential that he be aware of what he was feeling so he was never surprised by it.  He did not have the luxury of denial.  He could not keep inviting Sans to spend time with him and pretend he didn’t know exactly why he wanted to do so.  

It was freezing, outside his bar, and the place soon filled up like he hadn’t seen since he moved to the surface.  The humans were quiet, and kept to themselves as they experimented with monster liquor.  

The heat a crowd of people generated made him feel a little like he was with his family, back in Hotland.  Or in Snowdin with all the regulars packed inside on the coldest nights.  

“cold night,” Sans said, when Grillby had a minute to take a break.  “was _chilled to the bone_ before i got here.”  He chuckled.  "nah.  it’s a shame i promised paps i’d eat at home tonight.“  

Grillby looked at the entire meal Sans was working through.  

"oh.  this is just a late lunch."  He patted where there’d be a stomach, if he had one.  "anyway, looks like you need the empty seat, tonight."  

Grillby just shook his head.  Sans and the rest of his old regulars could stick around all day without ordering a single thing, for all he cared.  

"ok stick here a sec.  the past, present, and future walked into the bar."

“……………it was tense.”  

Sans frowned as much as his face allowed him, disgruntled.  "i thought i had a new one for you." 

Grillby didn’t remember exactly when Sans had told that one to him, but he felt like he’d heard it a thousand times.  

His single employee looked like he was going to explode from stress, so Grillby cut his break short.  If this kept up, he was going to have to hire more people.  

He heard Sans say, to himself, as Grillby walked away, "i bet the humans have books of those." 

Grillby had already been in a good mood, but the temperature in the room increased a few degrees, just from hearing some bad jokes.  His flame burned a little higher.  If there had been another fire monster in the room, they would have immediately known something was up, but humans and other types of monsters were completely oblivious.  

His little secret was safe.  But should it be?  He was already sure he knew how Sans would react, but did that mean he shouldn’t say anything? They both struggled to understand each other, and that gap in understanding was keeping Grillby from pursuing what could be a very pleasant friendship.  

Sans was allergic to making an effort, and was content with how things were, so Grillby was going to have to be the one to step over the gap.  

When he went back to the bar, someone else was already in Sans’ seat.  He took their order, and was too busy for the rest of the night to think until well after closing.  

 

–-

 

Sans woke up, startled, his cell phone buzzing.  He’d fallen asleep on the couch again, and Papyrus had tossed a blanket over him so it took a minute of fumbling around to find his hands and the phone.  

The light from the screen was painfully glaring, and it was a struggle to focus on the text and get the words to stop blurring.  Was that Grillby’s picture?  He hadn’t gotten a message from him since they’d stopped seeing movies.  

He rubbed at his eye sockets.  The clock on his cell said it was a few hours past the bar closing, so it was probably just Grillby forgetting that most people didn’t have a night schedule.  

The message read: _When you have a little time, I would like to discuss something with you._

Well, that was a little alarming.  He had been planning on not bothering to reply until the morning, but he was just going to wonder if something was up all night.  

_wheres the fire grillbz_

_I’m sorry if I woke you, Sans.  I wasn’t expecting a response until tomorrow._

_yeah it was a little_ alarm _ing but its fine whats up_

_Alarming.  Because I woke you.  I really am sorry._

_no big_

He curled his leg bones up under him and switched the TV on.  He cranked the volume down, even though he doubted Papyrus was sleeping.  

_When you have a minute, I would like to speak with you about something.  In person._

He was starting to think Grillby always just texted like something huge was going down, and this was all going to be a huge let-down.  He yawned.

_i always have a minute for you.  hey even two since were such good pals.  threes pushing it though_

_Right now?_

Sans groaned.   _i’ll be there in five_

He sighed and got up off the couch, stretching until his spine popped.  Most of the five minutes would be him putting on his coat and splashing his face with some water.  

His phone buzzed again.   _I’m not at home.  It will take me half an hour to get back._

_well where are you i can meet you there_

Sans had to look up the address, and then it took a few shortcuts to get to the exact location, since he didn’t know the place.  

Grillby was acting as a second streetlight outside an all-night diner.  He had at least taken his work clothes off and was looking comparatively casual in a black button down and jeans.  His light flickered in a way that Sans read as “uneasy,” even if he couldn’t pinpoint why.  

"hey," Sans said, walking up to him.  It was weird thinking about Grillby eating at someone else’s restaurant.  Part of him had been expecting Grillby to fry up a steak at the movie theater.  

“Sans.”   

“we talkin in there or what?”  

He shook his head.  "…someplace private…would be welcome."

He shrugged.  "all right."  He grabbed Grillby’s elbow and led him down the road until he found a spot where he could take a shortcut without alarming any humans.  Grillby would recognize the park.  

They sat down at the same bench as before and Sans leaned back, looking up at the stars peeking out from between the leaves of the trees.  He waited.  

He was starting to nod off when Grillby finally said something.  

“………………………………”

It was too fast and didn’t sound enough like words.  Sans thought he should probably be better at understanding his “accent,” by now.  

“uh.”

“……why did you bring me here, last time?”  

Sans shook his head.  "turned out it didn’t matter.  but, hey, we had a good time seeing some bad movies, right?  so it wasn’t a waste of time."  

He shook his head.  

"is that agreeing with me or what?”  He was a little frustrated.  No wonder Grillby hadn’t brought up whatever his issue was, when Sans thought he was angry.  He was way too dependent on Grillby making the effort to be understood.  It was just easier when someone else did all the work.  

"I enjoyed myself."

“so, what’s up?  you didn’t call me out here for no reason.”  If it was about why Sans had brought him out to the park the first time, then Sans was going to have to make up something to say.  He could probably show him the picture.  They could both be confused about it existing, and then it could just be a mystery that they never solved.  Sans didn’t have to explain honestly how he found it.  

“…no.  Sans.”  Very slowly, he said, “You thought I was angry, but I never explained myself.”  

“you don’t have to.”  

He shook his head.  "I had the wrong idea about why you kept asking me out with you."  

Sans was paying attention now, and didn’t miss a word.  The meaning took a second to sink in, however.  "oh.   _oh_ , i get it.  yeah, no wonder you were…yeah.”   _Welp_.  

“It never even occurred to you.”  Grillby said this matter-of-fact.

Sans hadn’t thought about dating in what felt like a very long time, but was not actually that long from the perspective of everyone else.  “nah.”  

He nodded, satisfied.  

“though looking back, i can kind of get where you got the idea, wow.”  That would have been kind of a cruddy thing to do, almost like tricking someone into going out with you.  He rubbed the back of his neck, starting to feel embarrassed by the conversation.  

“I should have asked.”

“there’s kind of a, uh, barrier here.  maybe i don’t have ears, but i should hear you better, by now.  we’ve known each other long enough.”  

He nodded.  "…are you listening, now?  I don’t want to repeat this."

"maybe you could text me."  

Grillby stared at him.  

“what?”

“I could have done that from the diner.  But, if I have to…”

“okay, you don’t want to do that.  fine.  i’m _all ears_.”  

“Sans.”  In an odd way, Grillby seemed to be getting smaller.  He was drawing his flame in, containing himself.  "The problem was not that I thought you might be…interested.  It was that I would not have minded.“  

"…"

Grillby rubbed where the bridge of his nose would have been, if he had one. "…the problem–"

"no.  i heard it.”  Sans looked down at the bones of his hands, and then, back at Grillby.  His friend was flickering so nervously, now, he was sure he had understood it right the first time.  "uh.  not sure what to say to that."  

He seemed to relax, which was exactly the opposite of what Sans was doing, and when he spoke, it was with slow deliberation.  "I wanted you to understand why I was acting strange.  And that it was me, not anything you did.”  He put his hand on Sans’ shoulder. Sans twitched, involuntarily, and he pulled away.  "I expect nothing from you.  It’s all right."  He stood up, stepping back, his eyes on the slightly hunched figure Sans made on the bench.  "The only thing you need to take from this, from me, is that you are cared for."  He sighed.  "Understand?"  

"yeah, i got all that."  He looked up and Grillby was watching him.  Grillby’s flames had returned almost to normal.  "heh.  you know you can do a lot better."  Grillby was pretty hot, after all.  Also, a lot of other things that weren’t puns, maybe, but meant he deserved someone who could be good to him.  

Grillby started.  He went to say something, stopped, and then flared up.  He pointed at Sans and started to talk. "…………………………………………………………………………"

"i’m not–"

"…………………………"

“not getting any–”

"…………………………"

"uh."

Grillby grabbed his phone and started jabbing at it.  

“i think i said something that got you _heated_.”

He jabbed at the phone even harder.  

“look.  it’s just.  okay, you’ve got the _hots_ for me, i get it.  but–”  His phone buzzed.  

He tentatively took it out of his pocket and opened the message.  

_I could not do better.  Don’t act like I haven’t met you.  I have known you for years, and it pains me that you’re so uninterested the idea never even occurred to you.  I understand that I can’t change that.  But.  I.  Could.  Not.  Do.  Better._

“uh.”  He looked up from his phone, but Grillby was still typing.  His phone buzzed again.

_1\. No matter how miserable you are, and you are very frequently miserable, you care for your brother.  2. You asked me out because you thought I was working too much, and you were right.  It does not mean much to you, but it means something to me.  3. You are intelligent, 4. interesting, 5. attractive, 6. and sometimes you even manage to be funny._

“grillbz, i’m always hilarious,” Sans said.  His phone buzzed.  

_I look at you, and I want to take care of you.  Maybe for the rest of my life.  I don’t want anything from you that you don’t want to give, but please understand that I am not being petty or shallow or naive when I say I want you to be with me.  I did not approach this lightly._

“ok, ok, ok, i get it.”  Sans held up his free hand.  "you win. i’m great." 

Grillby’s flames died back, until he looked like normal.  Maybe a little embarrassed.  He put his phone away.  He tried speaking again. "Sorry for the outburst." 

Sans couldn’t help it – he laughed, even though he knew it wasn’t the time or the place for it.  "maybe someday i’ll forgive you.  for complimenting me.  i’d try to find it in my heart, but i’d have to find one first."  It was amazing what Grillby considered an "outburst." 

Grillby nodded.  He carefully adjusted his sleeves and brushed imaginary dirt off his shirt.  The sides of his face were a light blue.  

Sans hoisted himself off the bench.  They had been at the park long enough that the stars were disappearing and the sky was turning a gray that meant the sun was about to come up.  "let’s get a pre-breakfast.  at that diner."  

"…i don’t recommend it."

"we know it’s open."  Plus, he knew exactly how to get there, now.  

“…true.”

 

–-

 

Grillby followed him back.  They took a booth away from the other customers.  

The waiter’s hand shook as he took their order.  Grillby had to repeat what he wanted three times before Sans spared the human and translated.  

They were the only monsters in the place, but no one was throwing them out.  The few other people eating there seemed a special kind of exhausted that even a couple monsters couldn’t break through.  

Sans uncapped the ketchup and used a knife to scrape out the contents of the bottle onto his eggs.  Their table had a small container of hot sauce, and he squirted a little into his coffee when the waiter brought it over.  They both were automatically given glasses of water, and Grillby very gently pushed his across the table.

“…your eggs are underdone,” Grillby said.  His pancakes were burnt.  He picked at them.  

“human food goes right through me, anyway,” Sans said, snickering.  

Grillby ignored the joke and reached across the table, stabbing a small piece of egg off of Sans’ plate.  He wiped off a little of the ketchup and tasted it.  "……………"

"indescribable, right?”  

“They have to stay open all night or no one would eat here.”  

“you’re just eating your pancakes completely wrong.”  Sans opened up the bottle of syrup and unloaded as much as he could on Grillby’s plate until Grillby grabbed his wrist and forcibly pushed him away, leaving a trail of syrup on his place mat.  Somehow, while Grillby’s eyes weren’t on his plate, Sans managed to empty a few containers of blueberry jelly and a packet of butter onto his food.  

Grillby stared at his pancakes, offended.  

“don’t knock it 'til you try it.”  

He tentatively cut off a very small triangle of syrup soaked pancake and ate it.  

“now go ahead and knock it.”

“…off the table and into the trash....where it belongs,” Grillby said.

Sans took Grillby’s plate once he was done with his eggs, and Grillby ate Sans’ hashbrowns, which offended him less than the rest of the meal.

He really should take Grillby out to breakfast more often, since lunch and dinner were both no-go with his schedule.  Take him on a tour of the worst restaurants in the region.  

When they got up and Grillby saw the mess they (Sans) had made of the table, he left a tip that was more than the cost of their inexpensive meal.  

Sans was in a good mood, and found a wad of singles in his pocket that was enough to cover the actual bill, so he paid.  He kept money on him to buy chips for Frisk at the vending machine they passed by on the walk to school.  He’d shown the kid a trick so they could get chips for free, but they had been so impressed they told Tori, and now he paid for them.  

They walked for a little while, before he took them on a shortcut back to Grillby’s.  Their timing was good enough that they got to catch the tail end of the sunrise.  He needed to kill a little time until Tori and the kid were awake, and he found himself reluctant to do that anywhere else.  

Grillby invited Sans into his apartment, to stay until he had to leave to take Frisk to school.  He nodded off on Grillby’s couch and woke up an hour later when the alarm on his phone went off.  

There was still no rush, so he read through the messages from Grillby.  He flipped to his photos and found the one of the two of them.  What had he been trying to tell himself?  

Grillby walked out of his bedroom, already dressed for work.  His clothes were neatly pressed and he was still missing the tie.  The room, already warm, got a little warmer as soon as he came in.  

“mornin’ grillby,” Sans said.  "rise and _shine_. is what i’d say if either of us slept last night."  

"…good morning, Sans."  Grillby came over and sat next to him, leaving a huge gap between them on the couch.  "…I thought I heard your alarm."

"yep."  He still had no desire to leave.  Once he left and got some sleep, he was probably going to think about all of this, and it was easier not to.  

Grillby started to say something, but shook his head and didn’t bother.  Sans guessed it must be more effort than it was worth on zero hours sleep, but he could be projecting his own feelings onto Grillby.  

“i’d better head out,” Sans said.  

Grillby nodded.  He walked with Sans to the door.  

Wow, this really felt like a date.  It felt like the end of a _good_ date, not that Sans had a lot of experience with those.  "huh,“ he said.  

"…good bye, Sans."  Grillby unlocked and opened the door for him.  

He walked out, to the top of the stairs, but stopped there.  "we accidentally date again, grillbz?" 

“…we would actually have to intend…”  

He turned back around.  Grillby was leaning against the doorframe, ready to watch Sans leave.  

“well, if we had, i would’ve been okay with it.”  

“…not very funny.”  

“good, 'cause i’m being serious.”  He winked.  "see you later, grillby."  He was gone before Grillby had time to react.  

 

–-

 

The kid kept running up ahead, full of youthful energy and that unquantifiable determination.  They made Sans even more tired, just trying to keep an eye on them. 

"slow down, kid.  these old bones can’t keep up," he said.

His phone buzzed, and Frisk dashed back, curious who was calling. Usually it would be Tori telling him Frisk forgot something, but not this morning.  

Frisk tugged on his sleeve, asking him if it was Papyrus.  

“nah.”

The sleeve tugging got more insistent.  They really liked getting their nose in everyone else’s business.  

Sans tapped in an answer to the text and sent it off.  "just set up a hot date."  

Frisk gave him a disbelieving look, shook their head, and ran off.  Sans continued walking at the same sedate pace.  


End file.
